The development of the speaking skill through visual aids at SRC Turi female inmates

Abstract

Regardless of age, social status, religion, race or legal status, everyone has the right to access education. One part of being educated is learning English in our country. Female inmates1 also have the right to learn this language. That is mainly why this study aimed to develop the speaking skill using visual aids such as pictures, realia, flashcards, puppets and wallcharts. A pre-experimental design was used, in which a group of nine (9) inmates of the Social Rehabilitation Center (SRC Turi)2 participated. The researcher conducted an intervention, teaching English with visual aids. To collect the data, a pretest, a posttest and a questionnaire were used. The results of the quantitative analysis demonstrated that there was a 26, 67 % of improvement between the pretest and the posttest of the whole group of inmates. Their perceptions regarding the use of visual aids were also analyzed. They showed positive and negative aspects. Among the positive ones, inmates mentioned that the visual aids were useful to develop their speaking skill, and they pointed out the importance of learning English. However, the participants mentioned the restricted time devoted to their English classes as negative.